March 17, 2023

Isabella Stewart Gardner: The Person

As we finalized the programming for 2023, I knew I would be writing a Musing in support of our Spring Series of programs about Isabella Stewart Gardner. What I didn't know as I began researching, was that it would morph into a trilogy of Musings spotlighting Isabella Stewart Gardner: the person, the museum and the heist. This week's Musings from Main is the first in that trilogy focusing on Isabella Stewart Gardner, the person.

Celebrate Women's History Month by attending  Isabella, presented by the award-winning cast of Delvena Theatre Company on Sunday, March 26, 2023 from 2-3:30pm.

We hope you can join us.

Isabella Stewart Gardner
The Early Years

Isabella Stewart was born in New York City in 1840, the daughter of David Stewart and Adelia Smith Stewart. She was the eldest of four children but the only one to survive past their mid-20s.  She was privately educated and went to finishing school in Paris where she became friends with classmate, Julia Gardner, her future sister-in-law.

In 1860, Isabella married John Lowell “Jack” Gardner Jr., and they settled into a house that was a wedding gift to the couple from her father. Their home was located on Beacon Street in the fashionable Back Bay neighborhood of Boston. In 1863, a little over three years into their marriage, they welcomed their son, John Lowell “Jackie” Gardner, III.  Sadly, Jackie died before his second birthday from pneumonia and although they never had another child of their own, in 1875 the couple adopted their three orphaned nephews.

Isabella fell into a deep depression after the loss of her only son, and in 1867 on the advise of doctors, Jack took her on a trip to Europe. They visited Scandinavia, Russia, and Central Europe.  The tour proved a turning point in their lives and Isabella's depression lifted.

Isabella Stewart Gardner
World Traveler

Isabella loved traveling! She ultimately made 13 international voyages to 38 countries and kept detailed journals of her travels. She and Jack visited places that were rather unconventional for the times such as Egypt, the Middle East and Asia. She collected a wide variety of art along the way and made detailed notes of the many different architectural styles she saw.

In 1884, Isabella and Jack first visited the Venetian palace Palazzo Barbaro, a favorite place of theirs that they would return to many times.  According to the Colnaghi Foundation website, Isabella would become the "acknowledged Queen of American-Venetian society attracting to her court an international circle of artists, writers and musicians" as the palazzo became the gathering place for a group of American and English expatriates. Isabella's social circle included the painters John Singer Sargent and James McNeil Whistler, art connoisseur Bernard Berenson, novelist Henry James, and composer/songwriter Cole Porter.  It was here Isabella's friend, Anders Zorn painted a well known and wonderfully expressive portrait of her. "According to Jack Gardner’s diary, on the evening of October 20 his wife went out on the balcony to see a display of fireworks. Coming back into the room filled with guests, she threw open the glass doors and said, 'Come out—all of you. This is too beautiful to miss.'"(Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum website) 

“She lives at a rate and intensity, with a reality that makes other lives seem pale, thin and shadowy.”-Bernard Berenson

Isabella Stewart Gardner
Boston Socialite

Gardner saved hundreds of newspaper clippings recounting her exploits. These weren’t always accurate but they do portray the delightfully whimsical and fun loving, albeit rather quirky nature, of Isabella's character. According to Sarah Carsone, a senior writer at Art Net News, "Four papers reported on the special treatment she received at the Boston Zoo, where she was allowed to walk animals like Rex the lion on a leash—dressed to the nines the whole while, naturally."

On another occasion, Isabella scandalized society with her 1888 portrait by John Singer Sargent which was exhibited to great acclaim at Boston’s St. Botolph Club. The Isabella Stewart Gardner website states that "The work also inspired gossip and legend: someone jokingly titled it 'Woman: An Enigma,' while others believed that the sensuous display of flesh deliberately echoed the scandal recently created by Sargent’s Madame X."

Apparently her husband, Jack requested that the portrait not be shown publicly again while he was alive, and so she hung the controversial work in a gallery that remained private until after her death.

"Mrs. Jack Gardner is one of the seven wonders of Boston. There is nobody like her in any city in this country. She is a millionaire Bohemienne. She is the leader of the smart set, but she often leads where none dare follow… She imitates nobody; everything she does is novel and original."— a Boston reporter

Isabella Stewart Gardner
The Later Years

All of the press coverage elevated Isabella’s social standing, but it also made her appear frivolous and eccentric, downplaying her achievements rather than recognizing her important cultural contributions.

Even though much of Isabella's life was lived in the public spotlight Casone writes that, "Gardner was in some ways quite a private person—little of her own writing survives, in large part because she asked friends to burn her correspondence, making it hard to know her views on slavery, women’s suffrage, and other pressing issues of her day."

Jack Gardner died suddenly of a stroke on December 10, 1898 leaving Isabella alone to carry on with their shared plans of building a museum for their extensive art collection.

Isabella herself suffered a stroke in 1919, that left her partially paralyzed but still able to visit and receive friends. She continued to receive guests in her museum where she lived on the fourth floor for the next five years. A painting by John Singer Sargent done in 1922, shows a frail but alert Isabella swathed in white. She died in 1924, leaving a museum “for the education and enjoyment of the public forever.”

Isabella's Art Collection and Museum will be the focus of an upcoming Musings from Main.

John Singer Sargent, Mrs. Gardner in White, 1922, watercolor on paper courtesy of Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Sources used for this Musing are listed below.

• Casone, Sarah, Before the Notorious Art Heist Eclipsed Her, Isabella Stewart Gardner Made Headlines as ‘America’s Most Fascinating Widow.’ Here’s Why, Art Net News, November 24, 2022, retrieved March 17, 2023.
  
• The Grand Tour microsite, Isabella Stewart Gardner page of the Colnaghi Foundation website, accessed March 17, 2023.
• Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum website, accessed March 17, 2023.
• Shea, Andrea, New Exhibit Explains How Isabella Stewart Gardner Amassed Her Famous Art Collection WBUR March 16, 2016,  retrieved March 17, 2023.
  

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